Canaanite Timeline

10500 BCE – 700 CE · 4 sites

All sites in this period

The Stone Tower of Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), c. 8500 BCE — among the world's earliest stone monuments

Continent Record

Earliest Known Site in Asia

Jericho

9600 BCE – 700 CE

The world's oldest continuously inhabited city — a Neolithic settlement in the Jordan Valley where humans first built permanent stone structures and cultivated crops around 9600 BCE. The Tower of Jericho, erected by an early Neolithic community around 8500 BCE, is one of the earliest stone monuments on Earth, predating Stonehenge by more than 5,000 years and the Egyptian pyramids by more than 6,000.

NeolithicChalcolithicBronze Age

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Palmyra

2000 BCE – 273 CE

Ancient oasis city in Syria, Palmyra was a crucial hub on the Silk Road, famed for its fusion of Greco-Roman and Persian architecture and the brief but dramatic reign of Queen Zenobia against Rome.

Bronze AgeIron AgeHellenistic

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Continent Record

Oldest Temple in Asia

Baalbek

1000 BCE – 400 CE

Baalbek, Lebanon's monumental Roman temple complex, preserves the largest stone blocks ever quarried and stands as a testament to imperial ambition and religious syncretism.

Iron AgeHellenisticRoman

Tell es-Sultan, ancient Jericho — the 10-metre occupation mound in the Jordan Valley, Palestine

Continent Record

Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Asia

Tell es-Sultan

10500 BCE – 600 CE

The world's oldest walled settlement — a 10-metre earthen mound in the Jordan Valley preserving over 10,000 years of continuous occupation, including a Pre-Pottery Neolithic stone tower built around 8300 BCE that is the oldest known free-standing stone structure, and the Natufian base camp that may represent the world's first permanent village.

PrehistoricNeolithicChalcolithic